Nisargadatta Maharaj (17 April 1897 – 8 September 1981), born Maruti Shivrampant Kambli, was an Indian Guru of nondualism, belonging to the Inchagiri Sampradaya, a lineage of teachers from the Navnath Sampradaya and Lingayat Shaivism.
The publication in 1973 of I Am That, an English translation of his talks in Marathi by Maurice Frydman, brought him worldwide recognition and followers, especially from North America and Europe. Wikipedia
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj was a teacher who did not propound any ideology or religion but gently unwrapped the mystery of the self. His message is simple, direct and yet sublime.
The seeker is he who is in search of himself. Give up all questions except one: ‘Who am I?’
After all, the only fact you are sure of is that you are. The ‘I am’ is certain. The ‘I am this’ is not. Struggle to find out what you are in reality. To know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you are not. Discover all that you are not — body, feelings thoughts, time, space, this or that — nothing, concrete or abstract, which you perceive can be you.
The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive.
The clearer you understand on the level of mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker will you come to the end of your search and realise that you are the limitless being.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj – I Am That
Nisargadatta Maharaj
Accept life as it comes and you will find a blessing.
As long as you are pleased with the lesser, you cannot have the highest. Whatever pleases you, keeps you back.
Beyond being and not-being lies the immensity of the real.
Desire is of the past, fear is of the future.
Desirelessness is the highest bliss.
Doership is a myth born from the illusion of ‘me’ and ‘the mine’.
Fearlessness is the door to the Supreme.
Liberation is never of the person, it is always from the person.
Realise that what you are, cannot be born nor die, and with the fear gone all suffering ends.
The fruit ripens slowly, but falls suddenly and without return.
The way to truth lies through the destruction of the false.
To be free in the world you must be free of the world. Otherwise your past decides for you and your future.
To go beyond the mind, you must be silent and quiet. Peace and silence, silence and peace – this is the way beyond.
To understand suffering, you must go beyond pain and pleasure.
Whatever is conceived by the mind must be false, for it is bound to be relative and limited.
Whatever you think about with desire or fear appears before you as real.
Without memory and expectation there can be no time.
Nothing can trouble you but your own imagination.
Past and future are in the mind only – I am now.
Stop making use of your mind and see what happens. Do this one thing thoroughly. That is all.
The real is behind and beyond words, incommunicable, directly experienced, explosive in its effect on the mind.
You are already perfect, only you don’t know it. Learn to know yourself and you will discover wonders.